Conductor St.Clair begins 23rd season with Pacific Symphony

When Carl St.Clair arrived in 1990, Pacific Symphony was offering just 16 classical concerts a season in its signature series. Now it offers 36, with similar expansions in its pop series, chamber music series, special events and educational outreach.DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Carl St.Clair

Last accomplishment: Recording of "The Passion of Ramakrishna" by Philip Glass, released Sept. 4 on the Orange Mountain Music label.

Quote: "I think music is such a calling, because it's a voice you're following. It's not something you're shouting out; it's something that's leading you."

Profile: Talks earnestly. Works intently, focuses on the present, and lets the chips fall where they may. His life, he says, is filled with gratifying surprises that he never planned.

Carl St.Clair, music director of the Pacific Symphony since 1990, was lounging recently at an outdoor Laguna Beach café, near his home. He wore a long-sleeve gray T-shirt with the town's name on it, casual pants and a pair of sandals that edged toward house slippers.

Together with his long silver hair (a signature) and day-old whiskers, his get-up suggested a gently aging surfer more than distinguished conductor. He bought a coffee and something in a brown bag, both of which remained untouched during the interview.

As usual with St.Clair, it wasn't long before the topic of Leonard Bernstein came up. Bernstein was his mentor and a shining influence on his music and life. The next evening, St.Clair would be performing Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet," a work he learned at Bernstein's knee. St.Clair's score is marked in blue pencil with suggestions taken from Bernstein's score. The conversation between the two men continues every time St.Clair conducts it.

But this week it was different. As he studied "Romeo and Juliet" again in preparation for the performance, St.Clair took issue with something that blue-pencil Bernstein was telling him to do, something that St.Clair had done ever since he learned it from Bernstein. Now, he took out his pencil and scrawled at the top of the score: "I'm very sorry Mr. B., it was too slow, I have to go a little faster."

St.Clair turned 60 in June. The orchestra celebrated with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Segerstrom Concert Hall, which was simultaneously broadcast to a throng of listeners outdoors in the plaza. Afterwards, St.Clair was escorted outdoors and thousands sang him "Happy Birthday."

"It was the biggest surprise of my life," he says. "I had no idea."

As St.Clair begins his 23rd season with the Pacific Symphony this month, he is reflecting on his age, his past and his future. He calls the birthday a milestone. He feels that he is beginning a new chapter in his musical life, one that is marked with a new sense of freedom, throwing off the shackles on the past. He's happy where he is, even as that big round number redefines his self-image.

"When one turns 60, I guess you can no longer call yourself a wunderkind," he says, chuckling.

RAMPANT INNOVATION

The growth of the Pacific Symphony under St.Clair's watch has been little short of staggering, perhaps best exemplified by Pacific becoming the largest symphony orchestra (in terms of budget size) founded in the last 40 years in the United States. When the conductor arrived in 1990, the orchestra was offering just 16 classical concerts a season in its signature series. Now it offers 36, with similar expansions in its pop series, chamber music series, special events and educational outreach.

In 2006, St.Clair took the orchestra on its first – and hugely successful – European tour. Later that year, conductor and orchestra presided at the gala opening of $240 million Segerstrom Concert Hall, a hall envisioned as a home for the group and which quite possibly would have never been built were it not for the long-term stability that St.Clair provided to the organization.

The Pacific Symphony has also become one of the most innovative in the country, and recognized as such. Instigated by St.Clair and energized by the contribution of the noted musicologist Joseph Horowitz, the annual American Composers Festival has become a jewel on the orchestra's calendar, introducing a vast array of contemporary American music and little known gems from the past in historical, often multimedia context, with live interviews, seminars and other ancillary events in support.

In recent seasons, the orchestra has launched its "Music Unwound" series, in which each concert looks deep into a single piece in the classical canon, offering musical analysis as well as historical and psychological background. Looking to revive opera in Orange County, St.Clair and the orchestra are now offering semi-staged versions of operas as part of their schedule.

It's been a good run for St.Clair, who began his tenure here at 38, just out of an assistant conductorship at the Boston Symphony. He can't say how much longer he'll be here – he's committed through his 25th anniversary season in 2014-15, and is "in discussions" for beyond that – but it sounds like he'd like to stay.

"I learned that dedication and commitment to a symphony orchestra is not a five-year thing," he says, looking back over his 22 years. "It is really like a partnership. The other thing is that, if I think about orchestras that are the treasured institutions that we now know and love and treasure in America, at some point in the development of those orchestras, one or two people spent an inordinate amount of time with them."

Related Links

When Carl St.Clair arrived in 1990, Pacific Symphony was offering just 16 classical concerts a season in its signature series. Now it offers 36, with similar expansions in its pop series, chamber music series, special events and educational outreach. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Conductor Carl St.Clair, shown here in 2008, is starting his 23rd year as the Pacific Symphony Orchestra director. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARCO BORGGREVE
Conductor Carl St.Clair leads the Pacific Symphony in rehearsal in 2006 at the Segerstrom Concert Hall. The growth of the Pacific Symphony under St.Clair's watch has been little short of staggering, perhaps best exemplified by Pacific becoming the largest symphony orchestra (in terms of budget size) founded in the last 40 years in the United States. ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER FILE PHOTO
Carl St.Clair rehearses Copland's Clarinet Concerto with conductor Leonard Bernstein in 1985 at the Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Mass. COURTESY OF PACIFIC SYMPHONY
Conductor Carl St.Clair performs with the Pacific Symphony at the Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa earlier this year. St.Clair turned 60 in June. The orchestra celebrated with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Segerstrom Concert Hall, which was simultaneously broadcast to a throng of listeners outdoors in the plaza. Afterwards, St.Clair was escorted outdoors and thousands sang him “Happy Birthday.” ROSE PALMISANO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Carl St.Clair has been music director of the Pacific Symphony since 1990. COURTESY OF THE PACIFIC SYMPHONY

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